Guide

Bisperas (Trespassers) wins Best Asian-Middle Eastern Film Award in Tokyo International Film Festival

Bisperas (Trespassers) stars (L-R) Julia Clarete, Tirso Cruz III, Jennifer Sevilla and Raquel Villavicencio. The Jeffrey Jeturian film was able to beat 16 other films in the 24th Tokyo International Film Festival.

The Jeffrey Jeturian film Bisperas won the Best Asian-Middle Eastern Film Award in the recently concluded 24th Tokyo International Film Festival held in Japan.

Also known as Trespassers, this film is about a family whose house is burglarized on Christmas Eve. Starring Tirso Cruz III, Raquel Villavicencio, Edgar Allan Guzman, Julia Clarete, and Jennifer Sevilla, the Aguinaldo family discover secrets and past grudges that they have been hiding from each other all this time.

According to a PEP source, Direk Jeffrey was supposed to go to Japan upon the invitation of the TIFF organizers.However, there was not enough time to process his visa so organizers asked him to send a video of his acceptance speech instead.

Aside from Bisperas, three other Cinemalaya entries were chosen to take part in the section called Winds of Asia-Middle East - Filipino Express: New Breeze from CINEMALAYA.

Ang Babae sa Septic Tank (The Woman in the Septic Tank) directed by Marlon Rivera was also nominated for the TIFF’s Best Asian-Middle Eastern Film Award. However, the Eugene Domingo-starrer lost to Bisperas.

Other Filipino films included in the Winds of Asia section were Sheron Dayoc’s Halaw (Ways of the Sea) and Colorum by Jon Steffan Ballesteros.

The 24th Tokyo International Film Festival took place from October 22-30, 2011 in Tokyo, Japan.